From the Haptic to the Virtual: Teaching Metacognition to Designers

This workshop explores the application of current educational theories through hand skills lessons to help design students improve markedly in a college setting. Specifically, metacognitive strategies are taught through printmaking, drawing, and other haptic projects in order to reach and support students in a variety of design classes. These lessons help students overcome difficulties to find connections to new material, thereby providing them with the confidence and context they need to succeed academically. As more students come to us with less exposure to hand skills, we need to be strategic and judicious in how we ramp them into the computer-driven design space so they are not seduced by interfaces and features but able to conceptualized whatever the modality at hand. Attendees will go through actual tested exercises, discuss methods, and walk away with strategies, lesson plans, and handouts to help their students make the leap from the haptic to the virtual.

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Libby Clarke is an artist, designer, and educator living in Brooklyn, NY. She received her BFA in Printmaking from James Madison University and her MFA in 2D Design from Cranbrook Academy of Art. Professionally, Libby has worked as an interaction art director for over 12 years for such companies as Agency.com and Scholastic.com. Currently, she serves as an Assistant Professor at the New York College of Technology in Brooklyn, New York. As an artist, Libby has produced a series of multi-media conceptual products under the name Monstress Productions since 1996. She gives workshops and lectures across the United States on the intersection of art, activism, and technology, and her pieces are exhibited and collected internationally.